Friday, June 17, 2016

These days, we're living in the
age of MOBAs beyond the shadow of a doubt, as all the most recent major
releases - including Blizzard's Overwatch - are looking to include well tested
and proven MOBA elements even as they represent completely different genres.
Still, even as the iconic World of Warcraft is probing ever bigger depths
popularity-wise, possibly edging closer and closer to FTP-dom, there is still
room for classic MMO success, and Rift, which has not long ago celebrated its
5th birthday, is living proof to that. Indeed, in MMO terms, 5 years are quite
close to eternity and a title which can still boast an active and healthy
player-base after that many years, can rightfully be proud of its accomplishments.

Launched to an overwhelmingly
positive reception back in 2011, Rift
was Trion Games' first title and foray into the MMO industry. Even when it came
out, the title won over many with its customization-focused Soul system and its
dynamic events - both innovations in an already rather stale MMO environment
which embraced it as a breath of fresh air. Over the years, the game has
changed quite a bit indeed: new content was added and its various
elements/mechanics were tweaked. Perhaps most importantly, in 2013 it dumped
its prescription model, treading onto a path which Blizzard have long been
trying to steer clear of with their WoW. Rift now features a hybrid free/pay
monetization model which - considering that the game is ranked 13th among the
highest-earning pay-to-play MMOs - is quite successful indeed.

The most important ingredient
of Rift's success-concoction was the loyalty of their players though, most of
whom have remained loyal to it though the years and the sea of changes. The
Rift team was always responsive to player feedback, therefore most of the
above-said changes - instead of antagonizing their players - reinforced their
loyalty. There were some mishaps along the way too though, but there was always
enough political will on the part of the Rift team to address these problems
and to correct them in a timely manner.

Just how successful can the
game still considered to be though? Surely, there are some cold-hard metrics by
which this can be more or less accurately gauged...

Apparently - according to Trion
World CEO Scott Hartsman, at any given moment, around a third of the people
present online in the Rift universe are players who have been riding along
since the beginnings. On top of that, there's a sizable crowd of
"rotating" players, who return to the game periodically to check out
new content and stay to play for a while before leaving again. This metric
alone gives a rather impressive sense of why Rift has been so successful.
There's more to the recipe though...and we'll take another look at it in an
upcoming piece.

Philip Thalberg is tasked with covering the TI 2016 for GosuTeam, the most dedicated eSports community on the planet.